Dwight Garner’s Inside the List column has, at long last, found a pleasantly cranky voice. Consider Garner’s most recent column, particularly the item on Washington Post reviewer Patrick Anderson. Garner’s column is the only regular part of the NYTBR in which one can discern a beating pulse from the writer (which is more than one can say for so-called “humorist” Henry Alford, whose banal DOA wit is better suited for greeting card copy). This is because Garner regularly lays his convictions on the line, with wit, irony and an impish streak that any self-respecting shit-stirrer can discern as homegrown. As Ron Hogan observed back in October, Garner’s column isn’t all that different from a litblog. And perhaps his roguish tendencies might galvanize the NYTBR‘s more austere faction (I’m looking at you, Donadio and Tanenhaus) into injecting enthusiasm for books into their work product instead of anal retentiveness.
Year / 2006
Roundup
- Daniel Olivas interviews Salvador Plascencia.
- Lev Grossman on the Ian McEwan mess: “The disparity between the greatness of McEwan’s achievement and the pettiness of this complaint is vertiginous. That McEwan even bothered to answer the charges is gobsmacking.”
- Five novels for your inner drunk. (via Books Inq.)
- 75 Books? Try committing 100 poems to memory over a year. (via Bookninja)
- Terry Teachout, “In the Mood.”
- Just when you thought the Madonna adoption flap couldn’t get any more ridiculous, it goes into overdrive.
- Occasional Superheroine: an essential blog chronicling women’s issues in comics, as experienced by former DC/Valiant editor Valerie D’Orazio. (via The Beat)
- Pirate illustrations from Patricia Storms.
- Chasing Ray has kickstarted a series looking into books about writing.
- The Zuckerman Cycle will come to an end.
- George Saunders on Borat.
- Michael Allen on page layout.
- If you haven’t been reading Derik Badman‘s series, “Rethinking Transitions,” comic makers take note.
- The justice system works! (via Syntax of Things)
- Everything you could possibly want to know about Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn.
- Wondering how you can maneuver your way onto the Costa shortlist? Try cancer.
- What goes on at Beatrice Monti’s writers colony?
- Man, poor Ngugi wa Thiong’o just can’t get a break. In addition to the Vitale incident, four guys tried to rob him a few years ago in Nairobi.
- No surprise. On the book digitizing front, Yahoo doesn’t like Google.
- Kevin Sampsell devises new literary terms. This sounds suspiciously similar to the Literary Hipster’s Handbook!
- Adam Rogers eavesdrops on BSG‘s writers. (via Locus)
- Jenny Davidson’s “The Other Amazon.”
- Professor Fury’s “Songs I Couldn’t Get Out of My Head in 2006.”
Talk about a veritable cyberlynching. First Gawker, now Kevin Sampsell.
Michael Silverblatt on “I Will Survive”
You simply can’t make this shit up. You can find it here at the 3:13 mark.
“It’s amazing ’cause that song, for many people, I think, has the power of transport. Since it was such a popular disco song during the age of — the height of the AIDS crisis, many a time one would hear it at memorial services and be reminded of the unlikelihood of survival and the ferocity of the need to survive.”
Get out of the house much, Silverblatt?
BSS #81: Mary Gaitskill
Condition of Mr. Segundo: Feeling triumphant over hepatitis.
Author: Mary Gaitskill
Subjects Discussed: Emotional mood and writing, Marin County, horticultural details, decomposition and decay, dichotomous characters and the gray areas of life, unusual character relationships, the conscious design of Veronica‘s environments, office environments, the modeling world, maintaining a consistent vision over ten years, rumination vs. urgency in the writing process, Gaitskill’s placid demeanor, distractions, word processors, Francine Prose’s review, ordinary vs. extraordinary narrative, sympathy and didacticism, the text as sympathetic medium between writer and reader, responding to Benjamin Strong’s assertion that Gaitskill isn’t interested in the novel as social or political commentary, ideology, ambiguity, Ayn Rand, favoritism towards optimistic novels, shock value in literature vs. shock value in television, misfits, Irini Spanidou’s championing of truth, and auctorial perception.
EXCERPT FROM SHOW:
Gaitskill: When I’m reading another writer, even if I feel they’re technically accomplished, if I feel they have an ordinary mind, I am often — I wouldn’t say I totally lose interest. But it’s something that I don’t like to see in a writer. It’s almost like you can write about anything in an extraordinary way, not in a showy way. But to write about something extraordinary, I think, is usually to see it clearly.
Listen: Play in new window | Download
Easy Dinero for a Good Cause
The Rake has called for Eggers to offer an explanation for his critical flip-flop on Infinite Jest and, having failed to hear back from Pynchon for $49, he’s pledged to send a $49 check to 826 Valencia if Eggers responds (the check is pictured below).
In fact, I’ll go one step further. I’m in San Francisco. Eggers is in San Francisco. I will be happy to facilitate Mr. Eggers for an appearance on The Bat Segundo Show to talk about his book, What is the What, for a polite and civil conversation.
Except on one point.
At the end of the interview, he must respond on audio to the DFW question and he must respond to any followup questions by me, however tough and challenging, relating to this subject.
Come on, Mr. Eggers, this is easy money for a good cause. All you have to do is explain yourself. Or are litbloggers beneath your munificence?
[UPDATE: Matthew Tiffany has pledged another $49. That’s $98, Mr. Eggers, and an opportunity to promote your book. All for an explanation!]
[UPDATE 2: The Rake has upped his sum to $109. Hell, this is starting to feel a bit like Jerry Lewis.]
[UPDATE 3: Dave Eggers has declined to appear on The Bat Segundo Show.]